The Next Generation Read Deathly Hallows
by TeddyRemusPotter
Summary: All the Next Generation read Harry Potter and the Deathly Please read and Will not abandon ! Updated every few days ! Enjoy !
1. prologue

**Reading this book are all the Next Generation in age order:**

**Teddy Lupin ( twenty-five years old )**

**Victoire Weasley ( twenty-three years old )**

**Dominique Weasley ( twenty-one years old )**

**Molly Weasley II ( twenty years old )**

**Lucy Weasley ( twenty years old )**

**Frank Longbottom ( twenty years old )**

**Louis Weasley ( nineteen years old )**

**James Potter II ( seventeen years old )**

**Fred ( Freddie ) Weasley II ( sixteen about to turn seventeen years old )**

**Albus Potter ( sixteen years old )**

**Scorpius Malfoy ( sixteen years old )**

**Rose Weasley ( sixteen years old )**

**Alice Longbottom ( fifteen years old )**

**Roxanne Weasley ( fourteen years old )**

**Hugo Weasley ( fourteen years old )**

**Lily Potter II ( fourteen years old ) **

**Lorcan Scamander ( thirteen years old )**

**Lysander Scamander ( thirteen years old )**

**Fiona Longbottom ( thirteen years old )**

* * *

Lily looked at the book on her bed as she debated on what to do, she picked it up and looked at the cover once more. When she had made the wish to find out about everything in the war she didn't actually think it would happen, it was a random thought when her father muttered distractingly it was about the war when him and her mother shared a look at something James had said.

The cover picture had her father on the front only he looked younger, she knew he was only a teenager at the time in the photo. The words across the cover were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - so this was it, everything about the war and everything that she had ever wanted to know. But the thing was she might want to read it but she was scared aswell, there would be people inside that she had never met but wished she could. People who would be far away in a place she might never see them, even after death because who knews where you go when you die. She didn't want to read these books alone, so with that decision she picked up her brown muggle backpack quickly while stuffing the book inside.

"Lily," she heard her father call after her as she made her way to the fireplace, she froze suddenly at his voice - _please don't find out, please don't find out_ - she chanted in her head, her father told her a lot about the war, he didn't lie to them but he still didn't tell them they didn't directly ask or need to know.

"Yes?" she asked him turned around to face her father. Harry's messy black hair was the same as always, not even greying yet and he was taller than Lily but that wasn't saying much she was quite small.

"Where are you going?" he asked her with a curious smile, looking at her bag.

"Teddy and Vic's." she answered him without hesitation. Their house was the only place that they wouldn't be found out, they had their own house unlike the rest of them who still lived with their parents. Well Louis and Dominique didn't but they were with their friends and she only wanted their family in on this books. Though Scorpius and the Longbottoms should be included, and the Scamanders. She mentally shook herself - she would find out who to involve after she got to Teddy and Victoire's.

"Why?" Harry's expression was curious and not suspisious as he knew that his daughter wouldn't be doing anything bad but she was still acting a little strange. When Lily shrugged at him in an attemped casuallty he decided to just let her go, she might only be fourteen but she was a teenager and would do what she wanted.

Once Lily arrived at Teddy and Vic's she stumbled out of the fireplace and into their living room, it was decorated by Victoire and it was obvious as Teddy would never pick this colour of purple to go with black. Teddy might be a boy but he was very colourful and knew what looked good with what because of his ability and his hair colour changed with his outfit.

"Lily?" Lily looked up at the sound of her older cousin's voice. Victoire was standing in the livingroom doorway looking confused and a little worried at Lily's sudden appearance. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she shook her head, "But I want to talk to you, Teddy too. Is he here?"

"Yes, he's upstairs ..." Victoire trailed off as Lily started to open her backpack and reach in for the book with the answers. She was across the room looking at the book in only a few seconds, a confused and wondering expression on her face.

"What's this?" she held the book in her hand as she looked at Lily, pointing at the lettering.

"Exactly what you think it is, it's a book about my dad." Lily told her seriously. "It's a book about the war, in my dad's point of view."

"What?" Victoire's face was priceless, she was stunned and disbelieving. "How did you get something like that?"

"Trust me, it sounds crazy but I made a random wish and then they just appeared. Can you go get Teddy a minute I want to talk to you two," Lily asked her cousin and Victoire nodded but still looked rather stunned.

She didn't leave the room though only walked over to the doorway and bellowed up the stairs for Teddy, in less than a minute Teddy had flew down the stairs and staring at Victoire in a annoyed way though it disappeared as he noticed Lily.

"Lils," he said confused. "What are you doing here?" Without answering Lily passed him the book and noticed his expression go from confusion to disbelief to doubt and then to wonder.

"What is this?"

"A book from my dad's point of view on the war." Lily answered him.

"How did -" she cut him off, that wasn't important, the thing that was important was what they would do about it now.

"I wanted all the family to read about it, I mean we will all understand it if we read, Right?"

Teddy hesitated and looked back at the book as much as he wanted to read it, he knew that it wouldn't be pleasent and though Lily was tough and everything - she was only fourteen. He didn't know if she fully understood what she was asking and as if she could read his thoughts she glared at him suddenly and he glance at the book again.

"I suppose ... " he trailed off and looked at Victoire who just stared back at him and shrugged.

"How is everyone going to read it though?" Victoire asked Lily.

"Well," Lily shrugged, "I was wondering if we all come here." Teddy and Victoire stared at her in disbelief. "What?" she asked defensivly.

"I don't know if you know this Lily, but we have how many cousins?" Victoire pointed out. "And I bet you want to add the Longbottoms and Scamanders aswell?"

"And Scorpius," added Teddy quietly. That would be quite a lot of people, but he supposed they would need to stay there if they wanted to read it together. There wasn't anywhere else where their wouldn't be the older adults and the family's friends wondering about - seeing what they were doing.

"Fine," Victoire said as caught the acceptance in Teddy's expression. "I'll send the owls," she looked at Lily, "I'll tell them to come tomorrow, so you can go home and come back in the morning." Lily nodded.

**

The next morning there was nineteen people cramed in Teddy and Victoire's livingroom ranging from the ages of thirteen to twenty-five. They had told the other adults that they were all having a meet up that they hadn't had since Teddy and Victoire had moved in with one another and that they would be sleeping over for a few days, Audrey and Percy had agreed to look after their nephew Tyrone, Lucy's son, for a few days.

"So," James said looking at the book, "What do we do now?"

"Read it," Rose answered him with a roll of the eyes, she wasn't looking at him however to notice the annoyed glance he shoot her. That wasn't what he meant and she knew it.

"I suppose I'll read the first chapter," Teddy sighed as he reached for the book and held on to it for a moment. He knew he would be reading about his parents and that killed him, he would hear things that had actually came out of their mouth - word for word - and it killed him because they had said it to other people and not to him, and they never will.

Victoire noticed Teddy's struggle and rubbed between his shoulder blades comforting and he relaxed against her hand, a few seconds later he took a deep breath and turned the page, in a clear voice he read: **"The Dark Lord Ascending"**

* * *

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	2. The Dark Lord Ascending

_Victoire noticed Teddy's struggle and rubbed between his shoulder blades comforting and he relaxed against her hand, a few seconds later he took a deep breath and turned the page, in a clear voice he read: __**"The Dark Lord Ascending"**_

"Well doesn't that sound smashing," Freddie commented sarcastically and a few of the girls glared at him.

"Freddie, if you are going to be sarcastic you can leave, you know this is serious." Molly told him and he rolled his eyes at her. Of course he knew this was serious, he was named after his dead uncle - he had seen his father on days that reminded him of his twin brother, he had seen the tears and the alcohol before his mother took it away and told him to clean up and that it was enough mopping for one day. He knew this was serious because he knew that the uncle he never met had died in this war by the very same 'Dark Lord'

**The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.**

"Death Eathers?" Lucy asked the group and they shrugged their shoulders, it could be anyone but from the chapter title they would guess that.

**"News?" asked the taller of the two.**

**"The best," replied Severus Snape.**

Everyone looked at Albus, whom sighed, he had known that his namesake would be popping up as the bad guy. His father had told him enough about Severus Snape to know that he was considered a 'bad guy' until his dying breath. It was after he died that they found out he was actually a spy after all.

"I forgot he was a spy," James muttered and a few nodded. Some of them hadn't known the story of Severus Snape - their cousin Albus Severus Potter's namesake - but they knew enough to know that he wasn't always considered a goody.

**The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.**

**"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight. "It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?"**

"He?" Lorcan asked and was answered by a few raised eyebrow, "Oh, right, Voldemort."

**Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the men's way. Neither of them broke step: In silence both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.**

Freddie and James nudged each other and smirked. Dominique had noticed and rolled her eyes at them, she didn't need to be a genius to figure out what they were thinking, and she didn't even need to see them smirk to figure out either as James said to Louis a second later:

"Wouldn't it be funny if one of them got blocked and walked right into it." Louis smirked at his cousin and rolled his eyes at the immuturity, sometimes it was really hard to believe that James was seventeen and Freddie was about to turn seventeen, everyone else in the room tried not to smirk along with them as it would give Freddie and James satisfaction.

**The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a rustle somewhere to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again pointing it over his companion's head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.**

"Wait!" Scorpius said suddenly and when everyone looked at him he blushed, "I think I know were that is and I pray to merlin I'm wrong."

"It's something to do with your family, doesn't it?" Alice frowned at the thought. None of them had thought about Scorpius' feelings would be like thoughout the books. The Malfoy's hadn't been good guys though the war and they had been enemies with the rest of the people in the rooms parents. Scorpius noting Alice's concern waved his hand in a indifference gesture and smiled kindly at her.

"Yes, my grandfather. I think it's the Manor." he answered her and everyone nodded while they looked back at the book frowning. While Alice had been the one to notice when she had pointed out his family they had all remembered Scorpious' family tree and winced inwardly. This was about to be one heck of a reading.

**"He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks ..." Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.**

"Confirmed." Scorpius winced at the mention of his grandfather's name, they never had gotten on but still Scorpius didn't want to hear all the bad things about his family.

"Peacocks?" Frank mouthed to Teddy who put his head down to cover up a smile.

**A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.**

"House-elfs?" Victoire asked Scorpius as it was his family and he would know their patterns more than anyone else in the room.

"Likely." he nodded to her. He had a few house elfs in the cottage but his mother hardly let them do anything, a lot different than how his father had grown up he had once been told.

**The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then Snape turned the bronze handle.**

**The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below.**

All of them looked at each other feeling sick, Scorpius winced hoping to every god that his father wasn't there because he knew for a fact his grandfather was. But he knew better than that.

"That's wrong, that is a person and they are just hanging them there." Lily protested once her voice kicked in again and she felt her brother place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I know Lily, but rememeber what dad said about this, it's just the way it was and nothing we can do will ever stop it." Albus reminded her, their father had often told them that when they would get sad over some of the stories they would hear about his life. Not sad at him, but for him - their father had the hardest life they could imagine.

**None of the people seated underneath this singular sight were looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.**

Everyone's eyes were drawn to Scorpius though they tried to keep them on Teddy and the book but it wasn't helping as Teddy had looked at Scorpius too.

"Yup," he swallowed "Most likely my dad."

**"Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."**

"Woah, nearly late." Freddie muttered

"What a crime." James whispered back to him with a quiet chuckle. Rose was sitting next to them and heard what they had said. She gave them a warning glare though they ignored it as usual and focused back on the book.

**The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.**

"Voldemort," some of the room muttered while other people seemed unable to talk.

Lorcan shared a look with Lysander, they had talked about how Voldemort would look and how their mother must have felt facing him ect .. but they had never come up with such a description as that. When they got told that he had looked like a snake they had not taken the insult seriously but in this case it seemed the house changed the person outside look aswell as the inside.

**"Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. "Yaxley - beside Dolohov."**

Roxanne bumped her shoulder with Albus, "He must have been good if he made it to the right hand man."

"He murdered Dumbledore, remember?" Albus told her with a weary look, she cringed forgetting that. Her father had never talked good about Snape even if he found out he was a good guy after all - she had grown up hearing how much of a git Snape was, if not for his dark side then for his behaviour as a teacher too them.

The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.

"So?"

**"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."**

"That git," Freddie announced while Albus sighed again. It seemed that Snape's action would seem horrible for a while and reading that one sentance seemed like it was impossible for Snape to want to save Harry thought Albus knew that was what he wanted.

"It's just a front," Hugo told them and some agreed with him while others stayed silent.

**The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.**

**"Saturday ... at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.**

A few people shuddered at the mention of Voldemort's smile. It just seemed that this man could do anything that was considered anything 'happy' like a smile, a few of them just couldn't imagine Voldemort at all. He was gone long before they were born and he hadn't affected their lifes directly, they knew he was real but some of them just couldn't get their head around it.

**"Good. Very good. And this information comes -"**

**"- from the source we discussed," said Snape.**

"Who?" Lysander asked the group who just shrugged back at him, they didn't know either.

**"My Lord."**

**Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him.**

**"My Lord, I have heard differently."**

**Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."**

"He's only sixteen," Dominique muttered looking down. She was older than that and she had never had to face anything like this, she felt so bad for her uncle for the life that he had.

"I'm sixteen," Albus said, while Rose, Scorpius and Freddie nodded.

Freddie was about to turn seventeen next month so he was closer to the age that Harry was at that point. It just seemed so unreal to think of his uncle like this, he had only known his Uncle Harry as an uncle, someone to play Quidditch with, the Head Aunor, the understanding adult of the family. He just couldn't see him as a hunted teenager.

**Snape was smiling.**

**"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."**

**"I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.**

**"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape.**

Fiona giggled slightly, which set off Alice whom was sitting next to her.

**"I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."**

"You have," grumbled James, the ministry was much better in their generation. Something that their family commmented on quite a lot.

**"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.**

**Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.**

"Ew," Molly couldn't help but comment. Everyone nodded with her as he thought about that image.

"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy -"

"It's strange to think of Aunors without thinking of dad with them," James said, Albus and Lily nodded. Their father was Head Aunor and being that meant he controlled the department, it was strange to think of him being protected by other Aunors instead of him protecting them.

**Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.**

"I don't see what was so good about being on his good side?" Alice said. She would hate to be on Voldemort's good side because that would mean that she was 'bad' but she guessed that everyone at the table - minus Snape - wanted that though she couldn't see why.

"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"

**"At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."**

"He's giving a lot of infomation for a spy," frowned Lucy.

"But he is a spy," Albus remined her quickly.

**"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"  
**  
**Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.**

**"My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have - with difficulty, and after great effort - succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."**

"He became minister near the end, right?" Louis asked his sister next to him, Dominique nodded at him. She thought that her father had said that anyway.

**Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.**

**"It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."**

"He was the minister before Pius though," Victoire told her sibling as she had heard their conversation.

**"Yes - my Lord, that is true - but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."**

"Pricks," muttered half the people in the room. Rose looked like she wanted to correct them on their lanuage but thought better of it. She had a few choice words aswell.

**"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."**

**"We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval.**

"Of course he did," Teddy said rolling his eyes. He was trying not to think to much about his godfather this way. He knew a lot more about the war than the rest of the room - Harry had thought it was only fair since he had lost his parents there but he still hated to think of Harry being hunted. His godfather was everything to him growing up - and still is - he just didn't know what would have happened to him if his godfather had died in the war. Well, his grandmother would have raised him full time but he just couldn't imagine a life without Harry, and then without James, Albus and Lily.

**"We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."**

**"He will not do either," said Snape. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."**

**"All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."**

"He's a person," snarled Frank. He had high respect for his 'Uncle Harry' he didn't like the way the Death Eaters were talking about him.

**Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."**

"Yeah right!" James exclaimed proudly. Albus and Lily were sitting beside with smug smiles, Voldemort just didn't want to admit that he was wrong

**The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry Potter's continued existence. **

"I wouldn't be surprised," Teddy muttered. Harry had told him enough about Voldemort that he knew the man didn't think he was to blame for anything, it was actually quite sad.

"No," James said with a proud smile,"Dad's just better than Voldemort!"

**Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.**

**"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be."**

"But you won't." Lily said in a firm voice. If that had happened she wouldn't be here, neither would James or Albus. She could see why Teddy didn't want her to read this because she was actually a little scared for her father now, just because he survived didn't mean that he was fine.

**At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.**

"That's sick." nearly everyone muttered. Some of them actually looking a little sick.

**"Wormtail," said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"**

"Bastard," Teddy, James and Albus snarled suddenly, while Lily just glared at the book.

Teddy hated Wormtail, he really did, he made his father be alone for years - thinking that three of his best friends were dead and the other one was resposible. Wormtail was reason - other than Voldemort - that his godfather had to grow up with his horrible relatives. James and Albus hated him for the same reason thought James was more on Sirius benefit than the other too.

**"Yes, m-my Lord," gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had been sitting so low in his chair that it appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied. Now he scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room, leaving nothing behind him but a curious gleam of silver.**

"Coward," snarled Teddy, Victoire reached out and grabbed his hand. He would need the comfort, especially when his parents were involved.

**"As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter."**

**The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.**

"He might as well have." Scorpius muttered, he was trying not to talk to much because he knew that his family would come in soon.

"Why would he need a want though?" Fiona asked confused. She only got shrugged in response.

**"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see ... Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."**

_Sooner than I thought_ Scorpius thought to himself, grimacing a little. He noticed that half the people in the room where forcing themself not to look at him.

**Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.**

"What happened to him?" Lysander gasped, he had never met Lucius - he had never even heard that many stories about him. Though he only knew he was Scorpius' grandfather and that he had been a Death Eater.

"Azkaban." Scorpius stated looking down, his father had told him once that his grandfather had went to Azkaban in the war instead of after it like all the other Death Eaters. The Malfoy's got off as they switched sides half way though the final battle and if it wasn't for Scorpius grandmother Narcissa, well Harry Potter would be dead. That was one of the only things he was proud of his family about.

**"My Lord?"**

**"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."**

**"I ..."**

"Why," Louis asked hesidently Scorpius. "did he take your grandfathers wand?"

For a moment Scorpius didn't answer then he let out a breath, "My dad said that they lost power, my grandfather wasn't in Voldemort's good books." A few people nodded, though they were wondering why.

**Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.**

**"What is it?"  
**  
**"Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.**

**"And the core?"**

**"Dragon - dragon heartstring."**

"I have dragon heartstring," Victoire, Louis and Hugo muttered to themself quietly.

**"Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously.**

A few people winced, though none of them liked Lucius, Scorpius was their friend and that was his family after all. Scorpius kept his hand down and shut bit the inside of his cheek nervously.

**"Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?"  
**  
**Some of the throng sniggered.  
**  
**"I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late ... What is it about my presence in your home that displaces you, Lucius?"**

"See," Molly turned to Scorpius, "your family didn't want to be apart of the Death Eaters after all." A few people looked at Scorpius too and nodded.

"Yeah, because they knew they were in danger from him. If they were still on his good side then he would have been fine." Scorpius muttered quietly so only Molly heard him, who cringed inwardly.

**"Nothing - nothing, my Lord!"**

**"Such lies Lucius ... "**

**The soft voice seemed to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath the table.**

"His snake, Nargini." Frank said suddenly, his face had broke into a huge smile thinking about what his father had done to that snake.

**The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders: its neck the thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking. Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy.  
**  
**"Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?**"

Teddy looked down at the book not really seeing it, knowing that he was related to the Malfoy - however distantly - and they were part of who killed his parents. It just hurt, not that he would ever put that on Scorpius or Draco for that matter, Harry had often said that Draco was just a naive boy in the beginning.

**"Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it - we do."**

"Do you think he would have caught that slip up?" Lucy asked

"Yeah," Albus answered her, "My dad said that while Voldemort wasn't smart - he was clever. He was observent, really observent."

"Uh-oh." Lucy muttered and Albus nodded in agreement.

**To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.**

"Dad ..." Scorpius whispered to himself. He knew how much his father now hated Voldemort - he was ashamed of how he was apart of that group, he regretted that Scorpius had faced insults, bullies and shoves from his choices even when he didn't have a choice in it.

**"My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted with emotion, "it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."**

"If that is who I think it is ... " Alice trailed off while Frank and Fiona nodded firmly in agreement, if that was the woman whom had tourtured their grandparents in insanity ...

**She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.**

A lot of people hissed, Teddy's eyes narrowed as he gripped the book tightly - it was no known who had killed his mother, though Bellatrix was the person that everyone thought was most likely. Alice, Frank and Fiona had seen their grandparents and in Alice and Frank's case namesakes to know how much damage that woman could do.

**"No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."  
**  
**Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight.**

"Discusting!" snarled Frank. He hated that woman - maybe not as much as his father but enough.

**"My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"  
**  
**"No higher pleasure ... even compared with the happy event that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"**

They all looked at Scorpius who looked just as confused.

"I don't know," he shook as his head at them as they all turned back to the book with frowned eyebrows.

**She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.  
**  
**"I don't know what you mean, my Lord."  
**  
**"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."**

"Oh," Teddy whispered as he lowered the book a little. Everyone tried not to look at him too pitingly, they knew that he would have that. Scorpius winced, knowing his family well enough that this would not turn out too well since Teddy's father was a werewolf and his mother was a half-blood whom at that point they didn't even know what she looked like.

"It's hard to think of your mum as Bellatrix Lestrange's neice," James said to Teddy quietly, tilting his head to the side. Though he hadn't known Teddy's parents personally, he was raised with Teddy and as such heard a lot of stories from the family about them, he knew them as well as Teddy did.

"I just wish that I didn't have to hear them at first from Death Eaters." spat Teddy, suddenly angry with the book. Victoire reached over to comfort him by rubbing his back, he calmed down a little but she could still feel the tensed muscles as he read onwards:

**There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The giant snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.**

Teddy gritted his teeth at the reaction to his parents marriage. He knew how the Death Eater would have thought about it but that didn't mean that he wanted to hear it.

**"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth. "We - Narcissa and I - have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."**

"Shut it," Teddy snarled gripping the book so tightly his knuckles were white.

"Teddy, love." Victoire said quietly as she pryed the book from his grip, "One of us will read just now." He seemed to want to argue but as he looked down at the black words on the page insult his parents he nodded once. His hand gripped together as he looked down, knowing that everyone was looking at him, wanting to comfort him but unable to.

**"What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"**

"Cubs," snorted Teddy. "It's a _cub_ actually and I'm not even a werewolf thank you very much!" Victoire and Rose were on either side of him and they were the only ones to hear him, they shared a quick look before Victoire continued to read.

Scorpius had looked down wondering if his father had ever thought about how Voldemort had made a joke out of Teddy to him before Teddy was even born, he wondered if his father had ever thought about that meeting when he saw Teddy.

**The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.**

**"Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."**

**And the laughter died at once.**

"Of course it did," Teddy muttered angrly. Everyone who had heard him quickly glanced at each other.

**"Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring, "You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."**

Teddy's head had whipped up before Victoire had even finished the sentance and he seemed to be a werewolf after all by the way he growled.

**"Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. "At the first chance!"**

"That bitch." nearly everyone in the room yelled. That was Teddy's mother, Bellatrix's own niece and she was willing to kill her. She was actually feeling gratitude became Voldemort had told her to kill her own niece. Who does that? They all looked angry at the thought, though none of them looking as bad as Teddy.

**"You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world ... we shall cut away the cancer that infects us until only those of the true blood remain ..."**

Lily looked over at Scorpius, she had liked him for a while now and she wondered what his family would ever think if they got together - not that they would - but she wondered what they would think of her half-blood status. There family was all Pure-Bloods again, well excluding Teddy.

**Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.**

"Oh no," Molly groaned. She didn't want to hear about this person whom she knew was going to die, looking into her family and friends faces she knew they felt the same.

**"Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.**

Albus closed his eyes for a minute thinking about how hard this must have been for his namesake, keeping up a front in pretending to be Voldemort's right hard man - being hated by the Order and the rest of the light side. He wondered how he felt seeing people he knew and couldn't save just because he had to keep up his cover.

**Snape raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!"**

**"Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.**

"He's not really making it easy to see he is actually a good guy, is he?" Roxanne asked with a raised eyebrow. Nearly everyone else nodded.

"That's because he needs to keep it hidden Roxie." Hugo answered her. She shrugged at him, she still didn't know how he could be a good guy.

**"And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. Now that the woman had woken, he seemed unable to look at her anymore.**

Scorpius' eyes narrowed, how would his father know her?

**"But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."**

A lot of the people in the room gasped but none more than Rose, her mother had told her about her muggle studies teacher at Hogwarts and she had just said she died in the war - it was true, Rose understood, but she didn't think she would have died like this.

**There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth cackled.  
**  
**"Yes ... Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles ... how they are not so different from us ..."  
**  
**One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor.**

"They aren't" Hugo nearly yelled. Many people were nodding along with him, Rose especially, their grandparents on their mother's side were muggles.

**Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again.  
**  
**"Severus ... please ... please ..."**

A lot of people winced, that must be hard knowing that you couldn't stop it - even though you wanted too. That woman wouldn't be leaving that room alive.

**"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defense of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance ... She would have us all mate with Muggles ... or, no doubt, werewolves ..."  
**  
Teddy snorted, he couldn't help it. Voldemort just had to keep bringing up his father, didn't he?

**Nobody laughed this time. There was no mistaking the anger and contempt in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from him again.**

"I just want to help her," whispered Victoire as she looked down to the book. Teddy's hand was now comforting her, rubbing her back and stroking her hair. A lot of the girls in the room seemed to have wet eyes, this woman was defensless and they had no doubt that she was about to die. A lot of the boys in the room looked angry however, though some of them looked like they might cry too.

**"Avada Kedavra"**

Everyone over the age of sixteen flinched, the younger ones knew what they were of course, but it was in sixth year that they learn about the unforgivables in full detail and it wasn't pretty.

**The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto the floor.**

"I don't blame him," Scorpius said, though his voice cracked a little knowing how his dad must have felt at the time.

**"Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the great snake swayed and slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood.**

Their was complete silence as they all looked at each other, Victoire closed over the book slowly and put it down on the table. Some people had their head down while other people just looked discusted with Voldemort's actions - and the Death Eaters - they were so glad that none of them were in that war, that it was over.

"Who wants to read next?" Victoire asked after a few minutes of silence, though no one wanted to answer her. Surprisingly it was Lorcan that answered her.

"I will," he muttered as he got up from his spot on the floor and walked over to get the book, when he noticed everyone looking shocked he shrugged, "We might as well get it over with." They all nodded, some a little more reluctant than others.

He turned to the second chapter and without hesitation he read out the chapter title in a strong voice: **"In Memoriam"**

* * *

**Reviews please? What do you think? Questions? Good or Bad? **


	3. In Memoriam

_He turned to the second chapter and without hesitation he read out the chapter title in a strong voice: __**"In Memoriam"**_

A few people raised their eyebrows at the title but didn't comment.

**Harry was bleeding.**

"It's on to dad now," Lily sqealed suddenly and a few people looked amused.

"Finally, I was wondering why it wasn't Uncle Harry's point of view and about the Death Eaters instead," Lucy said.

"Me too," Molly agreed with her sister then she suddenly looked worried, "Wait, he's bleeding?"

"Yup," Lorcan confirmed looking at the page again.

"I wonder what happened." Molly muttered to herself while everyone sat up a little straighter wanting to hear about someone they actually knew personally. It was different with Voldemort and Snape and the other Death Eaters, while they knew about them they didn't know them personally. Well Scorpius and a few others knew the Malfoy's personally obviously but it hadn't really been about them.

Teddy sighed looking down. While he knew of his mum and dad, he didn't know them. He had never had a conversation with them - they had died before he could even say his first word - and he had never touched them or seen them up close. He only had photographs of them, they were real people obviously, or at least they had been but there were times he wondered if they actually were. Were they his parents? Were they real? Did he make them all up in his head? He never knew them so he knew he had obviously made some detail up in his head but it was difficult to think of them as someone he made up on his own and not real people - they were his parents he shouldn't have to make them up.

**Clutching his right hand in his left and swearing under his breath, he shouldered open his bedroom door. There was a crunch of breaking china. He had trodden on a cup of cold tea that had been sitting on the floor outside his bedroom door.**

**"What the -?"**

"Yeah, exactly," James sniggered. It was just strange to think of his father as a teenager.

**He looked around, the landing of number four, Privet Drive, was deserted. Possibly the cup of tea was Dudley's idea of a clever booby trap.**

"Uncle Dudley?" Lily and Albus asked in union. A few people chuckled, they knew of the Potter's muggle relatives though they had never met them. Only Teddy, James, Albus and Lily had - Teddy, Albus and Lily didn't mind going to their house during the holidays every few years though James complained about it all the time. It wasn't that he had anything against the muggles, they were just so boring.

**Keeping his bleeding hand elevated, Harry scraped the fragments of cup together with the other hand and threw them into the already crammed bin just visible inside his bedroom door. Then he tramped across to the bathroom to run his finger under the tap.**

**It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic...but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him.**

"What?" Dominique asked in an amused voice. She couldn't see how a jagged cut could defeat her uncle Harry.

"I don't know," Louis answered her laughing, obviously trying to imagine the same image. A few people around the room were chuckling to themself while everyone else just looked amused at the thought.

"But I understand what he's saying, it's really annoying in the days leading up to your seventeeth birthday," Frank nodded, still looking amused.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Freddie muttered. His birthday was a month away and he was dying for it to hurry up, all his friends were already seventeen and preforming magic while he was still underage.

**He had never learned how to repair wounds, and now he came to think of it - particularly in light of his immediate plans - this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education. **

"He knows how to now," Lily informed the group, knowing how much her brothers and herself had needed small wounds repaired from playing in the garden or falling down the stairs and stuff like that since they were younger.

**Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, **

"Mum," Rose and Hugo said suddenly with a smile. Everyone else smiled at the mention of their aunt.

**he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.**  
**Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago. **

"I still haven't cleaned mine," Frank, Louis and James all said while all the girls shook their heads at them. Victoire turned to her brother beside her and whacked him on the back of the head.

"OW! - Vic, what was that for?" Louis grumbled looking at his sister who just raised an eyesbrow.

"That's disgusting behaviour Louis," she told him, "you left school two years ago."

"So?" He asked her, he left school two years ago and he hadn't used his school trunk in two years. He didn't see the need to clean it if wasn't going to use it. Victoire looked at him for a second longer before turning away and back to Lorcan, grumbling under her breath. Teddy looked across her head at Louis with a quick grin, that Louis returned amused.

**At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris at the bottom - old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fit. Minutes previously, Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand, and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood.**

A few people winced, but this had given Victoire more reason to breath down Louis' neck. She round on him again looking a little smug.

"See, if you don't know what's in your trunk," she pointed at Lorcan and the books "that happens," Louis rolled his eyes at his sisters dramatic's, he regretted saying anything now.

**He now proceeded a little more cautiously. Kneeling down beside the trunk again, he groped around in the bottom and, after retrieving an old badge that flickered feebly between SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY and POTTER STINKS,**

"As much as I want to say something against that, I feel bad." James annouced. Lily and Albus nodding beside him, they wanted to defend their surname and father but knew that Cedric died made it seem cruel as it was almost disrespecting his memory.

**a cracked and worn-out Sneakoscope, and a gold locket inside which a note signed R.A.B. had been hidden, he finally discovered the sharp edge that had done the damage. He recognized it at once. It was a two-inch-long fragment of the enchanted mirror that his dead godfather, Sirius, had given him.**

Everyone looked at James, who grinned unlike Albus when his namesake had been mentioned. James loved to brag about his namesakes, knowing that James and Sirius were two of the best pranksters at Hogwarts.

**Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest, but nothing more remained of his godfather's last gift except powdered glass, which clung to the deepest layer of debris like glittering grit.**

**Harry sat up and examined the jagged piece on which he had cut himself, seeing nothing but his own bright green eye reflected back at him. Then he placed the fragment on top of that morning's Daily prophet, which lay unread on the bed, and attempted to stem the sudden upsurge of bitter memories, the stabs of regret and of longing the discovery of the broken mirror had occasioned, by attacking the rest of the rubbish in the trunk.**

"It must be really hard," Fiona muttered quietly, Alice had heard her though and nodded. She didn't even want to know how she would feel if one of her family died, she knew that her uncle Harry had loved his godfather - it was obvious in the way he spoke of him - and she just couldn't see how he could keep going.

**It took another hour to empty it completely, throw away the useless items, and sort the remainder in piles according to whether or not he would need them from now on. His school and Quidditch robes, cauldron, parchment, quills, and most of his textbooks were piled in a corner, to be left behind.**

"Wait? Left behind?" Dominique asked suddenly looking at Lorcan who nodded.

"What does that mean?" Fiona asked the group but they all shrugged except Teddy. He remembered that his godfather didn't go back to school for the last year.

"He doesn't go back remember, he goes hunting for those things." Teddy told them all and a few they nodded. Though some of the family looked at him in confusion, not knowing what he was talking about - the only ones that knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione missed their last year was Teddy, James, Albus, Lily, Rose and Hugo. As it was their parents, they had been told though they had never been told what they were hunting for only that they helped defeat Voldemort

**He wondered what his aunt and uncle would do with them; burn them in the dead of night, probably, as if they were evidence of some dreadful crime.**

"Wait, what?" Lily asked turning to her brothers, who looked just as confused.

Teddy grimanced, he had met Petunia and Vernon once while Albus and James were younger and Lily wasn't even born. He knew that Harry didn't get along with them aswell as he did Dudley, but he wasn't going to tell the Potter's that.

**His Muggle clothing, Invisibility Cloak,**

"I love that thing," Freddie sighed longing making everyone laugh. They had all at once point used the Invisibility Cloak.

**potion-making kit, certain books, the photograph album Hagrid had once given him, a stack of letters, and his wand had been repacked into an old rucksack. In a front pocket were the Marauder's Map**

"And that," he added while everyone nodded. They had all saw that thing aswell and they loved it, though only the Potter's and Teddy kept it with them aswell as the Invisibility Clock - they rest of the family might have used it but only they kept it - James shoot Teddy a jealous look while Albus, Lily and himself all had to share it because they were at Hogwarts at the same time Teddy had gone though full seven year with it to himself, Teddy catching the look gave James a smug smile.

**and the locket with the note signed R.A.B. inside it. The locket was accorded this place of honor not because it was valuable - in all usual senses it was worthless - but because of what it had cost to attain it.**

"Wonder what," Alice said, getting a few people to nod along in agreement.

**This left a sizable stack of newspapers sitting on his desk beside his snowy owl, Hedwig: one for each of the days Harry had spent at Privet Drive this summer.**

"Hedwig," Lily sighed happily, their father always talked about Hedwig and she knew that he missed the snowy owl.

**He got up off the floor, stretched, and moved across to his desk. Hedwig made no movement as he began to flick through newspapers, throwing them into the rubbish pile one by one. The owl was asleep or else faking; she was angry with Harry about the limited amount of time she was allowed out of her cage at the moment.**

Lucy burst out laughing at the owls behaviour and soon enough everyone had joined it.

"That's one heck of an owl," she giggled with a hand on her stomach and one on her mouth to try and calm down. Her owl never asked like that, she wasn't even sure anyone in the room's owl's acted like that either. While some people said that owl's have rather big personalities she didn't know one that would go so far to fake sleeping because she was angry at her owner.

**As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular issue that he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.**

"Resignation of Charity Burbage?" Rose repeated quietly in a deadly voice while everyone looked shocked. "It said she resigned?"

Lorcan looked a little pale when he glance down at the words and without looking up nodded. Everyone in the room looked shocked but then Victoire started to look angry, and everyone else followed after they came out of their shock.

"I just heard that woman die," Victoire said though gritted teeth "and in the paper it said that she resigned?" Lorcan had looked up but he didn't answer, he didn't need too, they all knew it was true.

"That is so wrong." Molly finally seemed to have found her voice while no one else seemed to be able to say anything, either they were too angry or they felt too sick.

**At last he found it. Turning to page ten, he sank into his desk chair and reread the article he had been looking for.**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE REMEMBERED**  
**By Elphias Doge**

Still too angry to comment no one made a sound as Lorcan continued to read but Albus seemed to move forward without meaning to.

**I met Albus Dumbledore at the age of eleven, on our first day at Hogwarts. Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly due to the fact that we both felt ourselves to be outsiders. I had contracted dragon pox shortly before arriving at school, and while I was no longer contagious, my pock-marked visage and greenish hue did not encourage many to approach me. For his part, Albus had arrived at Hogwarts under the burden of unwanted notoriety. Scarcely a year previously, his father, Percival, had been convicted of a savage and well-publicized attack upon three young Muggles.**

"What?" James seemed unable to stop himself as he looked at Albus, who shrugged. Their father had never mentioned that before though undoubtably because it wasn't anything that Albus Dumbledore had personally done.

**Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who was to die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; on the contrary, when I plucked up courage to ask him, he assured me that he knew his father to be guilty. Beyond that, Dumbledore refused to speak of the sad business, though many attempted to make him do so. Some, indeed, were disposed to praise his father's action and assumed that Albus too was a Muggle-hater. They could not have been more mistaken: As anybody who knew Albus would attest, he never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Indeed, his determined support for Muggle rights gained him many enemies in subsequent years.**

A few smiled, they had grown up hearing stories of Albus Dumbledore - the Potter's and Teddy more than anyone - but they knew enough about him to know that he had a very strong support of Muggle Rights.

**In a matter of months, however, Albus's own fame had begun to eclipse that of his father. By the end of his first year he would never again be known as the son of a Muggle-hater, but as nothing more or less than the most brilliant student ever seen at the school.**

"Yeah," Albus muttered quietly, knowing more than anymore how much fame came from the name Albus Dumbledore. It was a big name to live up to aswell as the name Potter, his whole name - Albus Severus Potter - had a reputition with it, Albus Dumbledore was one of the most famous people, ever. Severus Snape was known by all different people as being a bad guy or being a good guy, Harry had told the truth about Snape after the war about what side he was on but not everyone would just take his word for it if they had known the man personally. And finally the name Potter had his father's fame which was pretty huge, he was expected to be as brillant as Dumbledore and his father and sometimes, just sometimes, he wished he was named something else.

**Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me later in life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.**

**He not only won every prize of note that the school offered, he was soon in regular correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day, including Nicolas Flamel, the celebrated alchemist; Bathilda Bagshot, the noted historian; and Adalbert Waffling, the magical theoretician. Several of his papers found their way into learned publications such as Transfiguration Today, Challenges in Charming, and The Practical Potioneer.**

"Wow," Lucy said stunned. She knew he was famous and had done a lot of things but when it was put into a list like that it seemed unreal.

"Yeah," Albus muttered "wow." Roxanne, whom was sitting on beside him, gave him a curious look but he turned back to Lorcan before she could ask.

**Dumbledore's future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister of Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions.**

**Three years after we had started at Hogwarts, Albus's brother, Aberforth, arrived at school.**

"Ab," Teddy grinned at the Potter, Rose and Hugo who all grinned back.

"Excuse me," Molly asked him "Who?"

"Aberforth," James answered her, "You know him, he is the owner of Hogs Head." Many people looked stunned, they didn't know that the owner of Hogs Head was Albus Dumbledore's brother.

"Wait," Lysander said holding up his hands "_The_ Albus Dumbledore had a brother and his job was working at Hogs Head." he sounded very skeptical and they could see why seeing as how famous the other Dumbledore was.

"Hey," Albus said looking insult, "Don't insult Ab, he's great." Aberforth and himself had once had a conversation of the shadow of Albus Dumbledore, they both knew how each other felt and it was nice. Lysander just grinned and shook his head.

**They were not alike: Aberforth was never bookish and, unlike Albus, preferred to settle arguments by dueling rather than through reasoned discussion. However, it is quite wrong to suggest, as some have, that the brothers were not friends. They rubbed along as comfortably as two such different boys could do. In fairness to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in Albus's shadow cannot have been an altogether comfortable experience.**

"Yeah," Teddy nodded his head, "I can see why." Albus nodding with him.

**Being continually outshone was an occupational hazard of being his friend and cannot have been any more pleasurable as a brother. When Albus and I left Hogwarts we intended to take the then-traditional tour of the world together, visiting and observing foreign wizards, before pursuing our separate careers. However, tragedy intervened. On the very eve of our trip, Albus's mother, Kendra, died, leaving Albus the head, and sole breadwinner, of the family. I postponed my departure long enough to pay my respects at Kendra's funeral, then left for what was now to be a solitary journey. With a younger brother and sister to care for, and little gold left to them, there could no longer be any question of Albus accompanying me.**

"That's sad," Rose frowned and many of the people in the room nodded with him.

**That was the period of our lives when we had least contact. I wrote to Albus, describing, perhaps insensitively, the wonders of my journey, from narrow escapes from chimaeras in Greece to the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists. His letters told me little of his day-to-day life, which I guessed to be frustratingly dull for such a brilliant wizard. Immersed in my own experiences, it was with horror that I heard, toward the end of my year's travels, that another tragedy had struck the Dumbledores: the death of his sister, Ariana.**

"Hey Ab has a portrait of her doesn't he?" Albus asked his brother who nodded. It had been years since they had seen Aberforth for a decent conversation.

**Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers. All those closest to Albus - and I count myself one of that lucky number - agree that Ariana's death, and Albus's feeling of personal responsibility for it (though, of course, he was guiltless), left their mark upon him forevermore.**

"Well, I guess it would." Alice said as she turned to look at everyone. "He was left in charge of his siblings and then a year later his younger sister dies, that would heartbreaking. You would think you were responsible. You were supposed to be looking after them." All the older siblings in the room nodded looking at their younger ones. Teddy looked over at Lily knowing that if he was ever left in charge of her and she died ... he closed his eyes tightly trying not to think about it. Lily might not be his blood sister but he loves her just as much as her other brothers.

**I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older person's suffering. Albus was more reserved than before, and much less light-hearted. To add to his misery, the loss of Ariana had led, not to a renewed closeness between Albus and Aberforth, but to an estrangement. (In time this would lift - in later years they reestablished, if not a close relationship, then certainly a cordial one.) However, he rarely spoke of his parents or of Ariana from then on, and his friends learned not to mention them.**

Frank rolled his eyes, his parents and sister were dead and he was not speaking to his brother. Of course he was 'more reserved' and 'much less light-hearted' And you don't mention the dead parents or sister to him for obvious reasons. He knew that some people in the room were having the same thoughts as himself.

**Other quills will describe the triumphs of the following years. Dumbledore's innumerable contributions to the store of Wizarding knowledge, including his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, will benefit generations to come, as will the wisdom he displayed in the many judgments while Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. They say, still, that no Wizarding duel ever matched that between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. Those who witnessed it have written of the terror and the awe they felt as they watched these two extraordinary wizards to battle. Dumbledore's triumph, and its consequences for the Wizarding world, are considered a turning point in magical history to match the introduction of the International Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.**

"Voldemort," some of the room muttered automatically and then blushed. Scorpius grinned at them, he had not always said Voldemort. Growing up his mother had tried not to say the name infront of his father if they ever got up to talking about it, she would say You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named but she would say Voldemort if Draco wasn't there. Even though his father hated Voldemort now didn't mean he wasn't scared to say the name, he still always called him the Dark Lord and he would always clutch his forearm were Scorpius knew the Dark Mark rested. Scorpius had usually said You-Know-Who and occassionally the Dark Lord even if he didn't think of him with respect. Once he came to Hogwarts was when he said Voldemort all the time, he even slipped in front of his father a few times.

**Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain; he could find something to value in anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched, and I believe that his early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss his friendship more than I can say, but my loss is nothing compared to the Wizarding world's.**

"That's not true," Rose protested at once, "While the Wizarding world loved him, they didn't love him personally the may this man did or Uncle Harry. They loved his power and his title, not him."

Many people looked at each other and nodded in agreement. The Potter's especially, they knew what it was like to go outside and say your name and suddenly everyone knows you and wants to talk to you ect. These people you don't even know love the title of Potter, not the actually Potter's themselves.

**That he was the most inspiring and best loved of all Hogwarts headmasters cannot be in question. He died as he lived: working always for the greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day I met him.**

**Harry finished reading, but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar, kindly smile, but as he peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.**

"Why would he be humiliated?" Lysander asked the group but no one answered. Teddy sighed quietly, as to not let Victoire know. He had a feeling why, once when he was sixteen he used Harry's persieve without asking and he found out things about his father - things he didn't know. Sometimes when you put someone on a pedistle it hurts and is humilating when it falls down.

**He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all**.

"That would be why," Louis pointed out, everyone nodded but not many would understand it.

**Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old. The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione or a friendly Blast-Ended Skrewt.**

"Stupid Hermione," repeated Freddie before he burst out laughing, followed by James then everyone else. Even Scorpius was laughing, having met Rose's mother a lot of times and liking her very much, never as much as Ginny since she had taken over like a second mother to Scorpius but he really did like Mrs. Weasley, though at that time she would be Miss Granger.

"Wait," Lucy said once they stopped laughing. "What the hell is a Blast-Ended Skrewt?"

"I think I know," Molly shuddered slightly "It sounds like one of Hagrid's pets." Everyone glanced at each other and after a second they nodded. That seemed the most likely explaination.

**He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements.**

"Just because he has famous achievements doesn't mean that everyone he talks about has to involve that though," Hugo shrugged. His Uncle Harry was one of the most normal people in the world to him, he had grown up loving Harry like a second father, Harry was his godfather but to the rest of the world he was The Famous Harry Potter.

**No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry's past, Harry's future, Harry's plans...**

"It must really suck knowing that you have plans other than fooling around at the age of sixteen, that at seventeen you have plans to kill the most evil wizard their is," Frank said, his sisters nodding beside him.

James, Albus and Lily glanced at each other and tried not to feel too guilty about all the stupid stuff they had ever moaned about, they thought being in each others rooms were bad and they threw fits at their dad became of it and look what he had to put up with for a childhood. Throwing a fit was the last thing he'd be able to do.

**and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, even though the only personal question he had ever asked his headmaster was also the only one he suspected that Dumbledore had not answered honestly:**

**"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**

**"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**

A few people raised an eyebrow but they didn't question it, knowing that they wouldn't any answers.

**After several minutes' thought, Harry tore the obituary out of the Prophet, folded it carefully, and tucked it inside the first volume of Practical Defensive Magic and its Use against the Dark Arts. Then he threw the rest of the newspaper onto the rubbish pile and turned to face the room. It was much tidier. The only things left out of place were today's Daily Prophet, still lying on the bed, and on top of it, the piece of broken mirror.**

**Harry moved across the room, slid the mirror fragment off today's Prophet, and unfolded the newspaper. He had merely glanced at the headline when he had taken the rolled-up paper from the delivery owl early that morning and thrown it aside, after noting that it said nothing about Voldemort. Harry was sure that the Ministry was leaning on the Prophet to suppress news about Voldemort.**

"Why would they do that?" James questioned suddenly, "The public needs to know about everything,"

"The Prophet and the Ministry were taken over remember." Albus reminded him but then paused. "Well the Ministry was, not sure about the Prophet but I'm sure they would have taken over that aswell."

**It was only now, therefore, that he saw what he had missed.**  
**Across the bottom half of the front page a smaller headline was set over a picture of Dumbledore striding along, looking harried:**  
**DUMBLEDORE - THE TRUTH AT LAST?**

"What is that supposed to mean?" Molly asked looking suspisious.

There was a pause. "Maybe there was just a couple of things that they last article left out, but I don't suppose it could be that bad. I mean everyone knows that Dumbledore was a great wizard anyway." Louis told everyone and they all looked at him, hopeful.

**Coming next week, the shocking story of the flawed genius considered by many to be the greatest wizard of his generation. Striping away the popular image of serene, silver-bearded wisdom, Rita Skeeter reveals the disturbed childhood, the lawless youth, the life-long feuds, and the guilty secrets that Dumbledore carried to his grave,**

"Disturbed childhood?" Albus asked slowly, knowing that couldn't be true. Aberforth would have mentioned it, wouldn't he?

"Lawless youth?" Molly asked, looking doubtful. She knew all about law and she also knew that Dumbledore was one of the least likely men to every go against it.

"What life-long feuds and guilt secrets?" James scoffed. His father had never told him a man like that and James always trusted his father.**  
**  
**WHY was the man tipped to be the Minister of Magic content to remain a mere headmaster? WHAT was the real purpose of the secret organization known as the Order of the Phoenix? HOW did Dumbledore really meet his end?**

"Maybe he just wanted to be the headmaster," Alice said, sounding annoyed. Her father had been offered an Aunor job but he had wanted to stay at Hogwarts too, just because he wanted to - he didn't have a secret plan behind it and neither did she think did Dumbledore.

"What does he mean real purpose about the Order?" James asked looking around for an explaination but no one could give one. They didn't know either.

**The answers to these and many more questions are explored in the explosive new biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, by Rita Skeeter, exclusively interviewed by Berry Braithwaite, page 13, inside.**

"Rite Skeeter," Rose said suddenly. "Is that the name? Has it already mentioned her?"

"Yeah," Lorcan said looking back a little. "It's her article."

"Mum told me about her." Rose spat looking angry. "Mum hates her, like really hates her. I don't know what she did but mum says she really bad when she writes."

Everyone glanced about, they knew that if Aunt Hermione hated someone then it was bad, Hermoine would try and be nice to anyone.

**Harry ripped open the paper and found page thirteen. The article was topped with a picture showing another familiar face: a woman wearing jeweled glasses with elaborately curled blonde hair, her teeth bared in what was clearly supposed to be a winning smile, wiggling her fingers up at him. Doing his best to ignore this nauseating image, Harry read on.**

"I agree with nauseating," Freddie said chuckling. He had never seen this Rita Skeeter but she didn't sound like someone he wanted to meet.

**In person, Rita Skeeter is much warmer and softer than her famously ferocious quill-portraits might suggest. Greeting me in the hallway of her cozy home, she leads me straight into the kitchen for a cup of tea, a slice of pound cake and, it goes without saying, a steaming vat of freshest gossip.**

"That doesn't sound like the person mum told me about," Rose said slowly looking at everyone as they glanced at each other, wondering.

**"Well, of course, Dumbledore is a biographer's dream," says Skeeter. "Such a long, full life. I'm sure my book will be the first of very, very many."**

**Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred-page book was completed in a mere four weeks after Dumbledore's mysterious death in June. I ask her how she managed this superfast feat.**

**"Oh, when you've been a journalist as long as I have, working to a deadline is second nature. I knew that the Wizarding world was clamoring for the full story and I wanted to be the first to meet that need."**

"Why have I go a bad feeling about this?" Louis asked suddenly and Dominique nodded beside him.

"Because it's bad." Scorpius grimanced. He had heard about Rita Skeeter from his father, apparently she had been one of the people who wrote about Harry Potter being mad and such, though Draco obviously never told Scorpius any more than that.

**I mention the recent, widely publicized remarks of Elphias Doge, Special Advisor to the Wizengamot and longstanding friend of Albus Dumbledore's, that "Skeeter's book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card."**

"Actually Chocolate Frog card tell a lot of truth," Albus said, wiggling his pockets looking for one. "Have you seen dad's, everything on it is true."

"Yeah, though it makes it sound all glory and such," Lily said sighing. Knowing how much her fathers fame annoyed him, it had started to annoy Lily aswell at a young age.

**Skeeter throws back her head and laughs.**

**"Darling Dodgy! I remember interviewing him a few years back about merpeople rights, bless him. Completely gaga, seemed to think we were sitting at the bottom of Lake Windermere, kept telling me to watch out for trout."**

**And yet Elphias Doge's accusations of inaccuracy have been echoed in many places. Does Skeeter really feel that four short weeks have been enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore's long and extraordinary life?**

"Oh, shut up!" Lucy wailed at the book. How did that woman think she was suddenly all-knowing and couldn't have done this what Dumbledore was alive.

**"Oh, my dear," beams Skeeter, rapping me affectionately across the knuckles, "you know as well as I do how much information can be generated by a fat bag of Galleons, a refusal to hear the word 'no,' and a nice sharp Quick-Quotes Quill! People were queuing to dish the dirt on Dumbledore anyway. Not everyone thought he was so wonderful, you know - he trod on an awful lot of important toes. But old Dodgy Doge can get off his high hippogriff, because I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for, one who has never spoken in public before and who was close to Dumbledore during the most turbulent and disturbing phase of his youth."**

Everyone was shaking their heads at this womans nerve, they were in a war. Going against Dumbledore like this was telling what side she was on and their parents had never actually admitted about her before, some have never even heard of her. So they didn't know if she was a death eater or not.

**The advance publicity for Skeeter's biography has certainly suggested that there will be shocks in store for those who believe Dumbledore to have led a blameless life. What were the biggest surprises she uncovered, I ask?**

"He wouldn't have lived a blameless life," Molly sighed, rubbing her eyes. Her father had told her he had made a big mistake when he was younger and he wasn't on Dumbledores side but he had always known Dumbledore was for the light side and that didn't mean he didn't make mistakes. Everyone made mistakes, even Dumbledore.

"What do you mean?" James asked confused at Molly's sentance.

"Everyone makes mistakes, even Dumbledore." she repeated her thoughts to all her family and saw that some of them frowned slightly.

**"Now, come off it. Betty, I'm not giving away all the highlights before anybody's bought the book!" laughs Skeeter. "But I can promise that anybody who still thinks Dumbledore was white as his beard is in for a rude awakening! Let's just say that nobody hearing him rage against You-Know-Who would have dreamed that he dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth! And for a wizard who spent his later years pleading for tolerance, he wasn't exactly broad-minded when he was younger!**

"He was younger though," Rose stated looking around the group, landing on Albus finally, "he changed obviously if any of that is true, which by the way it might not be." They all nodd with it, the most upset one of them would be would be Albus, but none of them, not even Albus knew the man personally, so was he actually hurting them?

**Yes, Albus Dumbledore had an extremely murky past, not to mention that very fishy family, which he worked so hard to keep hushed up."  
**  
**I ask whether Skeeter is referring to Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, whose conviction by the Wizengamot for misuse of magic caused a minor scandal fifteen years ago.**

"Oh," Albus chuckled. "Aberforth had told me about that," He had actually laughed when Aberforth had told him he fiddled with goats and his father, surprisingly, never said anything but look at them fondly and for some reason looked of the portrait of Aberforth's sister.

**"Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dung heap," laughs Skeeter. "No, no, I'm talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, worse even than the Muggle-maiming father - Dumbledore couldn't keep either of them quiet anyway, they were both charged by the Wiengamot. No, it's the mother and the sister that intrigued me, and a little digging uncovered a positive nest of nastiness - but, as I say, you'll have to wait for chapters nine to twelve for full details. All I can say now is, it's no wonder Dumbledore never talked about how his nose got broken."**

"That's horrible," Rose muttered under her breath, "putting a mans secrets all out like that when he's dead, he can't even defeat himself." Albus nodded with her, having faith in Dumbledore.

**Family skeletons notwithstanding, does Skeeter deny the brilliance that led to Dumbledore's many magical discoveries?**

**"He had brains," she concedes, "although many now question whether he could really take full credit for all of his supposed achievements. As I reveal in chapter sixteen, Ivor Dillonsby claims he had already discovered eight uses of dragon's blood when Dumbledore 'borrowed' his papers."**

"BULL!" Teddy shouted suddenly, looking angry. He hated when people took other peoples works and knew that it was Ivor Dillionsby that had would have done it the other way around.

"It's okay," Victoire said, rubbing his back. "We know that's not true and I'm sure Uncle Harry knows it too." Everyone nodded but Teddy remained quiet about that bit.

**But the importance of some of Dumbledore's achievements cannot, I venture, be denied. What of his famous defeat of Grindelwald?**

**"Oh, now, I'm glad you mentioned Grindelwald," says Skeeter with such a tantalizing smile. "I'm afraid those who go dewy-eyed over Dumbledore's spectacular victory must brace themselves for a bombshell - or perhaps a Dungbomb. Very dirty business indeed. All I'll say is, don't be so sure that there really was a spectacular duel of legend. After they've read my book, people may be forced to conclude that Grindelwald simply conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and came quietly!"**

Lorcan raised an eyebrow at that while everyone else just stayed silent for a moment.

"If she crazy?" Louis felt like he had to asked and everyone looked at each other, they had grown up hearing stories of this man. They knew for a fact that wasn't what happened. They didn't actually know what happened but it wasn't that.

**Skeeter refuses to give any more away on this intriguing subject, so we turn instead to the relationship that will undoubtedly fascinate her readers more than any other.**

**"Oh yes," says Skeeter, nodding briskly, "I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship. It's been called unhealthy, even sinister.**

"What?" Albus and James shouted at the same time as Teddy clenched his fist. Lily hissed why everyone else glared at the book and snuck glances at each other.

"That's total unacceptable," Albus muttered to himself but everyone who heard him nodded.

**Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy's best interests - well, we'll see. It's certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."**

"Yeah," James snorted, "He's got that right," While everyone nodded, Harry had the worse life they would have imagined but he was best father, godfather and uncle any of them could ever have.

"I bet she doesn't even realise how badly," Rose added with a scowl thinking about the woman that had caused her mother to use a lot of insults.

**I ask whether Skeeter is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned.**

**"Oh, yes, we've developed a closer bond," says Skeeter.**

There was silence until Victoire giggled and that set most of the room off too. "Somehow I doubt that," Dominiqiue patts her sisters shoulder in agreement.

**"Poor Potter has few real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moments of his life - the Triwizard Tournament. I am probably one of the only people alive who can say that they know the real Harry Potter."**

"Uh," Teddy chuckled, "I don't think you are."

James though looks insulted and shares a look with Albus; "No, I don't think you do." Everyone turned quickly to the icy tone that James had adopted and saw that he looked at the book with narrowed eyes, his brother nodding with him.

"Only mum, uncle Ron and aunt Hermione know the real Harry Potter," gritted Albus and everyone looked at him surprised but he didn't care. He didn't even know his father fully, only his mother and his father's two best friends did. And it stung for that woman to say that.

**Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?**

"Was he?" Fiona asked quietly and everyone shared a look.

"I don't know." Teddy finally admitted when he say the confusion and questions in his god siblings eyes. He hadn't known that fact either.

**"Well, I don't want to say too much - it's all in the book - but eyewitnesses inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge.**

"Of course," Albus muttered quietly and didn't miss the looks shot his way, he'd be getting this quite a lot for a while he knew.

**Is everything as it seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide - once they've read my book."**

**On that intriguing note, I take my leave. There can be no doubt that Skeeter has quilled an instant bestseller. Dumbledore's legion of admirers, meanwhile, may well be trembling at what is soon to emerge about their hero.**

Everyone leaned forward a little, unaware of thier movements. What would be a big secret of Dumbledore's?

**Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued to stare blankly at the page. Revulsion and fury rose in him like vomit; he balled up the newspaper and threw it, with all his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his overflowing bin.**

"Wow!" James whistles suddenly looking at his sister, "I think we know where you get your temper." He wondered about it though because his father was the calm parent

"I don't have a temper," her voice rose a little at the accusation and he laughed at her basically confession. She rolled her eyes at him and turned back to Lorcan to continue.

**He began to stride blindly around the room, opening empty drawers and picking up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing, as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head: ****_An entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship... It's been called unhealthy, even sinister... He dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth... I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for..._**

"Yeah," Frank nodded grimly, "I can see why that would annoying and hurtful." Everyone around them nodded, anyone would be hurt by that.

**"Lies!" Harry bellowed, and through the window he saw the next-door neighbor, who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously.**

James snuck another glance at Lily and chuckled.

**Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him...**

"Yeah," Rose nodded with a scowl. "I'd hate to see lies like that about anyone in the family." Especially of her grandparents because in a way she had learned from that article that's what Harry saw Dumbledore as a little. A grandfather.

**A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. **

"What what that?" Lysander couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Harry's eyes are green," a lot of people rolled their eyes at him while other people looked impatient.

"It's Dumbledore's eyes," his brothers explain looking confused, "though Dumbledore's dead so I don't know how it's him,"

**He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing: There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him.  
**  
**He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.**

"That was ... " he paused considering his words, "depressing." Victoire leaned onto his arm and he sighed looking at the book in Lorcan's hands; "so who's reading next?"

"I will," Dominique had admitted as she stepped forward with a hand out once she'd gotten it she wasted no time flipping to the next page; **"Dursley's departing."**


End file.
